Interim boss Rafa Benitez leaves the Blues having guided them to third place and Europa League glory, and the Czech goalkeeper believes they need to announce a replacement quickly

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech has urged the club to hire a new manager quickly so they have a real chance of challenging for the Premier League title next season.

The Blues secured third place in the league with a 2-1 win over Everton in interim manager Rafa Benitez’s last game in charge at Stamford Bridge, after earlier securing victory in the Europa League final against Benfica.

“The earlier he can be here, he can start work on things and not leave it for the last moment,” he told the Evening Standard. “You give the new boss the time to prepare things.

“Every summer is important. If you have a bad summer it can have consequences for the whole season. If you don’t get people to rest and to have a very good pre-season, you can start the season chasing.

“This is not an ideal situation. Every summer at a club is important because you have some changes in the squad. We will have a new manager and have to prepare for the oncoming season.”

Rumours suggest Mourinho will have a hefty transfer kitty at his disposal, with Chelsea looking to expand their squad to cope with a large number of games. The Blues played 69 matches in 2012-13, but Cech believes their trophy success will give them the edge in the transfer market.

“Last season everybody wanted Eden Hazard and because we won the Champions League he chose our club ahead of everybody else,” he added.

“This year we won back-to-back European cups and we did well in all sorts of competitions.

“Let’s see how fast we get the manager officially and who it will be and then you can obviously start working on [signings].

“The managers know what they want for the season and will work on that. As soon as you can do transfers, the market will move all over the place and everybody will try to get ready for the new season.”